CITES Day 9

Just hours after the ivory debates at the CITES conference here in Doha, 24 uncut ivory tusks have been intercepted by the Civil Guard in El Masnou, near Barcelona, Spain.

Spain is currently the President of the European Union, the 27 strong community of nations that holds such sway at CITES meetings. Until yesterday the EU’s position on the two pro-trade ivory proposals (one from Tanzania and the other from Zambia) remained largely unknown.

When it came to the vote however, the EU abstained on the downlisting component of both proposals (from the no commercial trade category of Appendix I to controlled trade category of Appendix II) and voted against the ivory trade request contained in the Tanzanian proposal.

I wonder: Did they know that such a major seizure (one of the largest in Europe for some years) had just taken place?

It really is now essential that we stop fence-sitting when it comes to ivory trading. Let’s focus our attention on conserving elephants and kill the trade once and for all.

Believe it or not, the US spoke out in favor of downlisting Zambia’s elephants to Appendix II to allow commercial trade! Why are the world’s “superpowers” not “superconservationists”?

Born Free is committed to helping some of Africa’s poorest nations save their elephants. You can help too at www.bloodyivory.org.